Midsommar

Shock alone isn’t enough

Personally, I’ve always felt that the best way to enjoy a film is when one is completely immersed in the world that has been built.

This of course includes being invested in the actions of the characters being presented to us regardless of whether these characters are villains or protagonists.

This is why we get to love Heath Ledger’s Joker or Ralph Fiennes’ Voldermort. These were characters that were vile yet we cared about their character’s arc and when they finally met their end, some of us empathized with them regardless of the fact that we were glad that their nefarious plans failed.

This brings me to my review of Midsommar. I went into this movie cold; No trailers, no prior knowledge of anything about this film other than the fact that it was made by the same person who directed Hereditary.

For context, I regard Hereditary as the most terrifying movie ever made. It’s not your usual horror movie and it got under my skin in a way that no film ever has since and probably never will.

With that in mind, I guess I expected that same level of beautiful yet horrifying tale but alas I was disappointed.

The movie starts off well enough with the opening twenty minutes setting the scene for us. Something horrific happens that sets our main character (Elizabeth Pugh) down a dark path of no return.

The acting is superb and I can’t fault the movie for that. Characters play off each other well and exhibit the usual awkwardness that comes with meeting a person for the first time. The acting feels natural and Ari uses the scenery and tapestries to tell us stories without ever using words and it draws you inexplicably on.

You feel the pull of the movie and you want to see where it leads. You want to see what’s going to come next and it’s kind of sad that the people you’re rooting for (or supposed to be rooting for) aren’t particularly likable characters and when they do meet their end, it’s mostly offscreen.

You feel the pull of the movie and you want to see where it leads.

By the third act I just wanted the movie to end and when it did, I felt nothing. I didn’t care about what happened to the characters and I didn’t care about what came after.

I guess the idea of this film was just to tell a story about loss and how unexpected events can give you the conclusion or peace you didn’t know you wanted or needed.

See this movie if you like generic horror, see this movie because you like a well shot movie. Other than that, you’ll probably wish you hadn’t bothered at all.

Be warned though, this is an R rated movie and there are disturbing scenes. I just didn’t find them disturbing enough because I wasn’t invested in the events occurring onscreen.

Final verdict: 5/10